"There you are," Julie exclaimed as they came into sight, Shiris unharmed.
"Yep. See? He didn't do anything," she said, smiling at Damian, who was leaning against an elevator, hands back in the pockets of his coat.
"Come on, get in.," he said as the door opened.
"The elevator doesn't go down to the base, does it?" Mayumi asked as they all managed to fit in the small elevator.
"No, but if I do this," he pressed the buttons for the floors 817263 in rapid succession and the elevator began moving, none of the lights lit, "it does. It's the code to get to the base. Now, there are three guards when we reach the entrance room, and we have to be quick, or else they'll set off the silent alarm and we won't even know it."
"That won't be difficult," Hiiro commented as they continued descending.
"Just how far down are we?" Julie asked after a moment.
"About 38 floors. They take the highest precautions."
"I guess so," she replied, then immediately stood still as the elevator began slowing down.
They all tensed, except for Damian. He seemed to be totally in control all the time, never getting nervous or upset. He was leaning nonchalantly against the wall when the doors opened silently and the others rushed out, searching for the guards.
Instead of three, they found ten.
"Can you not count?" Julie cried as she raced after her target, which was in turn running for a door on the far side of the large room. The walls were painted white with a gray border, and there was only one door. Five guards lined each side of the room, and a small box was on the right wall. Duo sprinted for the guard who was heading for the box, which was he guessed was the alarm.
Each person took a guard, leaving four extra, who all helped out their fighting comrades.
Duo, Julie, Mayumi, and Hiiro had to deal with two guards.
Julie whipped a backhand punch at one guard, ducked, and came up with an uppercut to the jaw on the second guard.
Hiiro jumped up and kicked both in a round house, then landed and punched with both hands, catching both guards in the jaw.
Duo dove for the man heading to the right and they crashed to the ground, Duo managing to hit the man once before he was hauled to his feet by the second guard and slammed to the ground. He leapt up, ignoring the pain in his face, and attacked both, preventing them from getting to the box.
Mayumi took care of hers nicely, neatly hitting them both in the stomach and then kicking their feet out from under them.
Trowa and Shiris made easy work of theirs, having only one to deal with.
In the midst of the havoc, the spies had no idea where everyone was, especially Damian. He seemed to have disappeared.
Then, suddenly, just as they were all finishing up the guards, one of Mayumi's got back up from the floor, holding his gun out in front of him.
"Don't move!" he gasped, holding his stomach with one hand, the other shaking furiously. But she didn't dare move, at least not until he was closer. She put her hands up and simply backed away, not worried. She had her move all planned out.
Just as she was about to execute it, Damian stepped in behind the man and pulled something out of his wrist.
Shiris saw light reflect off of a thin wire band in Damian's hands just before he lifted it over the oblivious' guard's head and slipped it around his neck, pulling tight.
He had moved like a shadow, expertly choking the man to death without ever making a sound. The man died quickly, and Damian let him drop to the floor when he stopped moving, the wire snapping back into his wrist.
Julie looked closely at his wrist, but it was covered by the trench coat. She was startled at how fluidly and lightly he had moved, and at how strong he was. The guard had been large, and Damian was not the buffest man she had seen.
"So now do you trust me?" he whispered in her ear. She jumped and turned, coming face to face with the misty eyes and grinning lips. She caught her breath—how had he moved so fast? He had been strangling that man less than ten seconds ago, and now he was all the way over here.
"How did you do that? What did you use to choke him?" she hissed, backing away. This only made her mistrust him more. Now they wouldn't even be able to keep track of him if he decided to turn on them.
"That's a secret of mine. It works nicely though, doesn't it?" he addressed the silent group, all eyes turned towards him.
Mayumi and Hiiro were even more pleased. He had killed one of the Federation, which in their minds proved his worth. They would be able to use him, and he appeared legit.
Duo and Julie realized they could be in real danger if he turned on them. They wanted nothing more to do with him, which their scowling faces showed plainly.
Trowa and Shiris were still unsure. He had killed one of the Federation, and he was helping them. Even if he had given the wrong information about the guards…
"You said there would be three guards, not ten," Trowa pointed out as Damian turned towards the lone door.
"Yes, I know, sorry about that. My information is constantly changing, and I haven't been able to update that part of it for a while now. But you did fine, so any other changes shouldn't be much of a problem."
"More changes? Just how much about this place do you know?" Julie demanded in a sharp voice.
Damian turned his head to look over his back at her furious face.
"More than you do," he replied, his voice getting a slight edge to it for the first time since they had met him.
But he couldn't help that. The girl was getting on his nerves, and he didn't like that. He had managed to sway the one boy and girl, and was apparently about to do the same to Shiris and her friend, but Julie and the other boy were hopeless. They were intent on hating him, for what reason he didn't know. He was charming, handsome, and helpful.
He sighed inwardly and started for the door again.
"Come on, we have to get going. But there are two ways we can do this. One, we all go one way, but if we are all caught the mission is finished. Or we can split into two groups and have double the chance of getting to the laptop. There are two ways to reach the room. One is shorter but more dangerous, the other longer but slightly easier to navigate. The choice is yours, but hurry."
Hiiro and Mayumi quickly decided upon the split way.
"Like he said, we have double the chance of getting it back," Mayumi said assuredly, folding her arms. She would not change her mind.
"Yes, but how do we know the other group is safe? What if one group is caught? They might be killed because they don't have enough people to defend themselves!" Duo exclaimed.
"That's a risk I'm willing to take. We're all trained assassins, and we are all willing to give our lives in the service of our job. This isn't different from any other mission. We take the smart way, not the safe way." Hiiro replied in a stern and hard voice.
"Yes, but what if he's trying to thin us out? Make it easier for us to be caught?" Julie returned, siding with Duo.
"Will you two stop it? That is enough! He has proven himself. He killed a Federation, and he led us here," Hiiro hissed, getting frustrated with the two.
Duo glared at him.
"Shiris, Trowa, what do you think?" Julie said desperately, her eyes pleading with Shiris to side with her.
"I don't know, frankly," Trowa answered, shrugging. "All of you are making good points."
"I agree. Any way is fine with me," Shiris agreed, looking at the floor. She wished she could have a definitive answer, but Damian was too elusive. She was torn between who to believe-Julie or Mayumi.
"If you had to pick one way to go, which would it be?" Duo demanded.
Shiris and Trowa looked at each other.
"I guess his way," Shiris admitted quietly. "It's true, we would have double the chance,"
Julie's face fell, as did Duo's when Trowa nodded once in agreement.
"Then it's settled," Hiiro said, pleased. He and the others went over to Damian, who was still leaning against the wall.
"Let's split into two groups," Hiiro said.
Julie and Duo wanted to cry out, to stop their friends from following his orders, but they couldn't. They still valued their friend's opinions, and maybe they were totally wrong about Damian. Maybe he was a good guy, and they were reading him wrong.
But deep down inside, Julie knew no good could come of this.